'Close-knit' colleagues, friends attend wake of SCDF firefighter who fought tanker blaze
CPT Kenneth Tay Xue Qin died in the line of duty on Thursday (May 16).
People paying their respects to SCDF officer CPT Kenneth Tay Xue Qin (left) at his wake held on May 17, 2024. (Photos: Facebook/Kenneth Tay, CNA/Marcus Mark Ramos)
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SINGAPORE: A "close-knit" community of Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) officers joined family and friends of Captain Kenneth Tay Xue Qin to pay their respects at his wake on Friday (May 17) evening.
CPT Tay, 30, died in the line of duty in the early hours of Thursday. The SCDF regular officer was part of the first response crew for a fire that broke out in the engine room of a China-flagged tanker anchored in Singapore waters.
He lost consciousness on board the ship and was taken to hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
On Friday, CPT Tay's casket arrived at the wake in Telok Blangah just before 7pm, with family members present to receive him.
Dozens of CPT Tay's colleagues from SCDF arrived early. One officer, who declined to be named, described them as a "close-knit" community who would support each other.
A few of CPT Tay's classmates from the National University of Singapore, where he studied nursing, also came to pay their respects.
Minister for Law and Home Affairs K Shanmugam arrived at the wake at about 7.40pm. He stayed for about 20 minutes, after speaking to CPT Tay's parents and other family members.
The minister, who did not speak to reporters at the wake, described CPT Tay's death as "very very saddening" in social media posts earlier on Friday.
"Rota commanders lead a team of frontline officers to respond to incidents, to protect the public," he said.
"My deepest condolences to the family," he said, adding that the Ministry of Home Affairs will assist CPT Tay's family during this difficult time.
With the agreement of CPT Tay's family, a ceremonial funeral will be held to honour him, the SCDF previously said.
CPT Tay was a rota commander who joined SCDF in 2017 and aced fitness and proficiency tests.
He expressed a strong interest in specialising in marine firefighting, and started serving at West Coast Marine Fire Station on Dec 16, 2023.
On Thursday, SCDF was alerted to the fire on board tanker Sheng Hang Hua 6 at about 12.15am. Firefighters arrived on the scene at about 1.15am.
During the firefighting operation, CPT Tay was with another firefighter in the smoke-logged engine room at about 3.30am.
While the firefighter directed the water jet towards the source of the fire, CPT Tay moved around the engine room with a thermal imager to detect other hot spots.
Based on body-worn camera footage, CPT Tay "appeared to encounter difficulties" at about 3.53am, according to the SCDF.
At about 4am, he was found lying at the bottom of a staircase that led down to a lower platform of the engine room.
He was found conscious but appeared unwell, and was immediately evacuated. He lost consciousness while being brought out of the engine room on a stretcher, and was subsequently pronounced dead.
CPT Tay's death comes about one-and-a-half years after the death of Sergeant 1 Edward H Go, the first firefighter to die in an SCDF operation.
SGT 1 Go died on Dec 8, 2022, while fighting a fire in a flat at Henderson Road. He suffocated to death after his air cylinder was depleted.
An SCDF officer, Muhammad Kamil Mohamed Yasin, has been charged with SGT1 Go's death. He is accused of leaving the full-time national serviceman alone to fight the blaze, which was against protocol.
Editor’s note: This article has been updated to correct the date of Edward H Go’s death. We apologise for the error.
